In general, a silver halide color photographic photosensitive material, after image exposure, is subjected to color development, bleaching, fixation or bleach-fixation with a processing solution capable of fixation, and then stabilization, washing and other processes. In this washing process following the process with a processing solution capable of fixation, it is known that thiosulfate, which reacts with silver halide to form water-soluble complex salt, other water-soluble silver complex salts, and sulfite, metabisulfite and other substances added as preservatives are contained in, or adhere to, the photosensitive material and are transferred into the process solution, and thus adversely affect the image storage property in cases where the amount of washing water is small. To overcome this drawback, a large amount of water is used to wash out the preceding salts from the photographic material in washing after processing with a processing solution capable of fixing. In recent years, however, due to limited water resource availability, economic aspects such as rises in sewage fee and light and fuel expenses, and aspects concerning environmental pollution prevention, it has been desired to develop a process which permits reduction of the amount of washing water and which ensures prevention of environmental pollution.
Traditionally, some methods have been designed such as those in which the washing tank is configured with a number of stages where counterflow is produced, described in West German Patent No.2,920,222 and "Water Flow Rate in Immersion Washing of Motion Picture Film", SMPTE. Vol.64, pp.248-253, May (1955), edited by S. R. Goldwasser.
Also known is the method in which a preliminary washing bath is provided in the immediate rear of a fixing bath to reduce the amount of environmental contaminants entering the washing process as contained in, or adhered to, the photosensitive material and to reduce the amount of washing water.
However, none of these processing methods uses no washing water. Therefore, this drawback poses an increasingly serious problem under the recent conditions in which water resource availability has become limited and washing cost has increased due to crude oil price rise.
On the other hand, there is another processing method in which stabilization is conducted immediately after photographic processing without washing. For example, silver stabilization using thiocyanate is known, which is described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No.3,335,004. This method, however, is faulty in that post-drying staining occurs on the surface of photosensitive material because a large amount of inorganic salt is contained in the stabilization bath. Also, these stabilization processes have another fault in that dye image deterioration occurs during long-term storage.
On the other hand, when processing a color photographic photosensitive material for picture-taking containing silver bromo-iodide as the silver halide, a stabilizing bath containing formalin is generally employed in the final process following the washing process. Formalin contained in such bath prevents changes in the physical properties of a photosensitive material, especially deterioration of image gradation which tends to occur with the lapse of time or is induced by a scar on the surface of a photosensitive material. In addition, by the use of the formalin-containing stabilizing bath, dye image deterioration by an unreacted coupler can be effectively prevented. At present, after treatment with a processing solution capable of fixing, a color photosensitive material for picture-taking is generally subjected to other processes, i.e., stabilization and washing. As mentioned above, since the washing process is costly and may cause environmental pollution, processing methods without the washing process have been developed and part of them are practically employed.
Recently, for the rapid processing and the elimination of the washing step, a bath for nonwater washing treatment and a formalin-containing stabilizing bath have come to be employed in combination. This method yields satisfactory results when employed for the processing of a large amount of photosensitive materials. However, color negative films are generally processed in small amounts (20 to 30 rolls a day) unlike color paper. The use of the above method for the processing of a small amount of films is defective, since the maintenance and control of a processing liquid is difficult and, image quality deterioration, especially the formation of yellow stains, may occur during storage, depending on the kind of a color negative film.
To solve these problems, the use of an alkanol amine has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,583. The use of an alkanol amine improves the preservability of a processing liquid to some extent, but cannot avoid the formation of yellow stains in unexposed portions.
The use of a hexahydrotriazine-based compound is described in Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection Nos. 27742/1987 and 151538/1986. The use of this compound, however, cannot prevent yellow stain formation sufficiently. Further, this method is defective in the preservability of a processing liquid, and tends to make the backside of a photosensitive material uneven.